Emir Kusturica

Born: November 24 1954
Where: Sarajevo, Bosnia

The Serbian film-maker has brought a punk sensibility to his tragi-comic stories of his homeland including Underground and Life is a Miracle.

Together with Francis Ford Coppola, he is the only director to have won the Cannes Palm D'Or twice.

His also known as well offscreen as he is on, thanks to his gypsy techno-rock band the No Smoking Orchestra and his prediliction for guns.

(rumour has it he likes to fire off a few hundred rounds before breakfast to get himself in the mood.)

Of orthodox Slavic origins he is self-declared Muslim and went on to become a staunch opponent of fellow Serb Slobodan Milosevic.

Wary that he was getting into the wrong crowd, Kusturica was sent away at 18 to study film at Prague's prestigious FAMU film school.

His early short films dealt with political subjects including anti-semitism during World War II (Titanic).

His feature debut - Do You Remember Dolly Bell? - won the Golden Lion for best first film at Venice in 1981.

Filming abroad for the first time, 1998's Time of the Gypsies told the story of a gypsy with telekinetic powers and landed Kusturica a best director award at Cannes.

In 1993, Arizona Dream starred Johnny Depp as a rebellious romantic and also featured a Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway.

The same year, he challenged Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj to a duel in the heart of Belgrade.

(Seselj refused the offer, claiming that he "didn't want to be accused of a murder of an artist").

In 1995, he won his second Palm D'Or with Underground, his surreal story of a group of Belgrade gun manufacturers.

Lightening the tone, he followed that with Black Cat, White Cat about a small-town hustler living on the banks of the Danube.

Super 8 Stories followed the adventures of Kusturica's Sarajevo band The No Smoking Orchestra on tour (he plays bass).

In 2005, Life Is A Miracle told the story of a railway engineer who faces a terrible decision when he falls in love with a Serbian captive.